By Charlie Lefflersports Editor
It was a basketball season that exceeded everyone’s expectations, not only in production, but in effort. It was a season that saw the Cardinals go from 12 wins to 19 wins. It was a season in which Louisville won its first post season game in three years. However, the season was only the first step on the long hard path of returning to national prominence.
When the University of Louisville hired head coach Rick Pitino to replace legend Denny Crum, fans expected immediate miracles. And though the season produced some sensational wins over No. 4 Cincinnati and Big Ten champion Ohio State, there were also, as expected, some inexplicable losses to the likes of Saint Louis and East Carolina. However, that is all part of the rebuilding process that a program must endure to return to the top. Coming into the season, Pitino said that he would be happy to come away with a 500 record. In the end, he exceeded those expectations, but fans should still not look for miracles to occur quickly. The Pitino plan is one that has been carefully laid out, not for quick results, but for strength in the long run. “We’ve got it going right now, but it’s going to take time,” said Pitino. “I hope you don’t look at us and say, ‘they won 19, next year they’re going to…’ it’s not going to be that way. We’re going to fight. We’re going to be better next year. We’re going to be better the year after. We’re going to get better talent, size.”
The first step in the process was to get his players to understand the effort it takes to win day in and day out. In the past, some players appeared to only come to play when they felt like it. Pitino enforced the standard of ‘if you don’t work, you don’t play,’ and the players quickly adapted. It was a philosophy that applied not only on the court, but in the player’s daily lives. The ones who made the adjustment excelled, while the ones who could not are no longer with the program. “This is one of the best seasons I’ve had as a coach,” said Pitino. “I don’t mean that in terms of the players overachieve so much; it was just that I felt that they wanted to win so badly every practice and every game. That’s the greatest thing a coach can witness how badly that players wanted to win and how willing they were to work at the game. This was a tremendous season. I saw so many things that made me proud.”
The next step was to return Freedom Hall to a place of Cardinal dominance. After going 5-11 at home last season, the Louisville lost only three games in Freedom Hall this year. Nowhere was the return to home dominance more prominent than in the fan attendance during the National Invitational Tournament. “You can’t find 19,000 people anywhere in the NIT,” said Pitino. “You can’t find that. These fans are behind basketball; they feel that, it’s a pulse… this program’s really going to take off because of that.”
Now Pitino is in the process of bringing in top talent from around the country. The players he is recruiting and signing are also not ‘quick fix’ athletes, but ones he sees will be able to contribute in the years ahead.
So, even though this season may have seemed bright to many Cardinal fans, they should realize that the door has just now begun to crack open and the real sunny days will be down the road.
“I was hoping to accomplish three things this year,” said Pitino. “One I was hoping to make it fun and entertainment for the fans and the players. Two, we were hoping to build a very strong home court advantage. And three, we wanted to have a good recruiting year. We’ve accomplished everything.”
“With what we’ve accomplished this year we should be a very competitive next year with a more difficult schedule.”
Overall the coach felt that it was basketball that helped him make it through the year. “It’s been a very difficult year personally,” said Pitino, “but professionally it’s been a very rewarding year. The guys were so intentive, so willing to learn, they were so bent on improvement.”
“I told them in our morning meeting that they now have an Olympics to prepare for,” said Pitino. “Whether it’s Reece (Gaines), Marvin (Stone) or Erik (Brown) where they have one year to train for their last year. If it’s Ellis (Myles) or Luke (Whitehead) they have two years remaining. Or whatever span they have remaining this has to be their Olympics which means they have dedicate every minute of every hour or every day to becoming a great basketball player.”
“It’s been a great season; I couldn’t ask for any more,” said Pitino. “I’m disappointed it had to come to an end, but everything about this place has been an 11 on a 10 scale.”
“The spirit of Louisville basketball is on it’s way up and that’s what we wanted to build,” said Pitino. “Try to get back to where it was in the 80’s. It’s going to take a while to do that, but certainly we’re on the road to recovery.”
